(Bloomberg) -- When Jeffrey Epstein walked into a Manhattan courtroom on Monday after almost 48 hours in federal lockup, he didn’t much look like a globe-trotting financier with six homes, two private jets and his own island.
In rumpled prison fatigues, his hair unkempt with a cowlick, and sporting red slip-on jail sneakers, the 66-year-old fund manager spoke softly as he pleaded not guilty to two federal charges that prosecutors said could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
The 23rd-floor federal court where Epstein made an initial appearance was packed with the press and summer interns and included at least two female accusers. Also present were lawyers David Boies and Sigrid McCawley, who represent three women who say they were sexually assaulted by Epstein.
While Epstein had little to say, Reid Weingarten, one of his three lawyers, wasn’t shy, assailing the government’s case. He blasted the two-count indictment unsealed Monday by federal prosecutors, calling it a “redo” and saying it was based on “ancient” charges.
Weingarten said a 2008 nonprosecution agreement Epstein got also ended a federal probe in the Southern District of Florida. In that deal, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution, he said. Epstein did his time and had registered as a sex offender, he said.
“It sure seemed like a global solution to everyone at the time, including my client,” Weingarten said. The defense lawyer argued that this case and the earlier one weren’t about sex trafficking but about minors engaged in prostitution. “This conduct is ancient history,” he said.
Prosecutor Alex Rossmiller argued the deal didn’t stop his office from bringing new charges, saying the new indictment was based partly on fresh allegations from new victims. He told U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman that since news of Epstein’s arrest, the government had been contacted by “multiple” lawyers for other possible victims.
Epstein seemed to sink back in his chair as Rossmiller told the court a search the FBI conducted of his East 71st Street home in Manhattan had unearthed “hundreds if not thousands” of photos of nude and partly clothed underage girls. Rossmiller said a room in the mansion where the alleged sexual encounters with young girls occurred was still set up the way it was described by victims 15 years ago.
“This is not an individual who has left his past behind,” Rossmiller said.
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